Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers

Friday, 30 September 2011

Me: "Would you like to come outside with me and help me hang out the washing?"
Jensen: "No, thank you"
Me: "No?"
Jensen: "No is a bad name. No thank you is a good name. Yes thank you is a good name too. But no thank you is that one in mind"

Sunday, 25 September 2011

I swear, my children hate sleep. J will fight it as long as he can,. Eden just doesn't seem to want to sleep without a nipple in her mouth.

Today was a massive day. We left the house at 8:15 to get to Natural Bridge (Springbrook National Park, Gold Coast Hinterland). After some fluffing about, we got there around 10:30ish. Bushwalked, took lots of photos, headed home, but detoured to have some lunch in Murwillumbah.

The monkey was almost almost asleep just as we got into the township and Eden was asleep. Woke the baby, headed to the pub for lunch. Jensen ate his lunch, Eden ate hers. We, of course, ate ours. We left. Jensen was awake the whole way home. So. No nap today, even though he was nearly there earlier.

Eden decided breast milk was boring and stickybeaked at everything else while she was supposed to be feeding. Made for overful breasts, but oh well. Things to see!

Finally we got home, and 6:30 Jensen wanted to climb into our bed and watch tv. So, Harry Potter was in the dvd player, that got turned on. He watched the whole thing. Remember, he was tired? He made it through the whole thing! He made it til just after 9pm. The movie was over (about 10-15 mins over), so we (Jensen, Eden and myself) climbed into his tiny little single bed (smaller than a single but bigger than a toddler bed) to fall alseep. I reckon Eden would have fallen asleep as well, but again, too busy. So, finally alseep.

Eden, on the other hand, I had been trying to put to bed since 7pm. She'd fall asleep, put into bed and either wake right away or sleep for 10-15 mins and wake again. I lost count, she either woke 3 or 4 times, between 7 and 9:45. One time I went in there (she was tired, you could hear it in her cries. Sometimes she puts herself to sleep, and I was hoping tonight would be it. No such luck), and she had her head butted right up against the top of the cot. She sleeps with her feet touching the bottom of the cot. She's doing what Jensen did for a few weeks, trying to crawl in her sleep (at this age though, Jensen was already crawling). Friday night (6mth 5days) rolled over from front to back. She's just started to roll back to front in her cot now. Actually took a dummy Friday night too! Once though, hasn't taken it again. Anyway, FINALLY she went to sleep at 10:10pm. However, she normally wakes 2-3 (if I'm unlucky 4) times a night. The next will be between 12 and 1. So, fingers crossed she makes it through that and just sleeps.\

I've been to the health nurse about her sleeping (and once I'm over my cold/flu thing - it's been 2 weeks now and I'm so tired and sick of being sick, I'll start the suggestions) and she suggested to feed her at the 10 wake up, just settle her at the 12 wake up (pfft thats going to be hard. Pick her up, settle her and put her back down - hahaha) and feed her again when she wakes at 4, but try and get her to play with her cot mobile until 5. That one's not so hard, it's the 12 wake up I'm going to have trouble with. To prove a point, she just woke (11:30), I had to feed her and put her back to sleep. She was trying to keep sucking and that darn dummy disappeared again! If I try that for a few days (and it doesn't work), I can go to a sleep group run by the health nurses. If I try that for a while, and that doesn't work - only then can I get a referral to a sleep school, where I can go for 4 nights and someone will help me sort out her sleep.

Now I'm just rambling.... I'm going to try and sleep before she wakes yet again!

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

2nd wake up- 10:30. Andrew brought her to me in bed, and I lay there, chest to chest, patting her back or bum and she wouldn't close her eyes. Finally I gave her the boob and she fell asleep. Went to put her unto her cut and put the cot mobile on and it's light came on woke her up. So, again, on her tummy, instantly asleep.

Despite how tired I get, or how frustrated I get with her constant whinging during the day (at the moment, she doesn't always seem to be like that), it never ceases to amaze me that there's always one thought that runs through my mind, without me actually consciously thinking it.

Hold on to your hat! Jensen asked for tomato and mushroom with his burrito dinner.... and OMG he ATE it! :D

I had a great day with the kids today, but we really didn't actually do anything. We watched some TV, and when Eden was napping Jensen played playdough, we made some cookie dough, more playdough, cut out the shapes, cooked them, played outside on Jensen's scooter. nothing fancy. But, I had a good day. I'm a lil upset that he has to go to daycare tomorrow. I'm enjoying them being at home together. Jensen plays peek-a-boo around the back of Eden's high chair when she's having lunch (or breakfast or dinner) and she thinks it's great! She laughs, but Jensen laughs more! It's funny though, you tell him to go and play with his sister and he wont. You don't want him to play with her and he will, and he'll get laughs, giggles and smiles.

Eden has been sleeping terrible. She will wake minimum 2 times a night, max 4. Each time the only way I can get her back to sleep is to breastfeed her. IT used to be just a quick 10 min feed and she's back asleep, but now I try to take her off and put her to bed, she bounces her head around until she's latched back on again. Or, if I get her away in time and she's still asleep, and put her down in her cot on her back, she screams and screams. But if I turn her over and put her on her tummy and pat her bum, she goes off to sleep. I drag my tired self back to bed and wait 5 mins and go back to check on her. I can't help thinking something bad (eg; sids) is going to happen. I'm ok with tummy sleeping during the day, coz I can check on her whenever, but at night, you just never know! I'm sure most parents, despite whatever parenting style they chose, can't wait for the kids bedtime. I know I look forward to their bedtime (I also feel bad and guilty, but that's another story) but the instant after the "bedtime" thought, the next thought is : "Eden still wakes! You wont get a sleep-through!" Tonight though, I'm awake and ready for the first wake up, which can be anywhere from 10:30 til around 11:30, then the next between 12 and 1. #3 is around 2:30-3 and #4 is 4:30ish. Exhausting.

ARGH!
The Flu has hit us here! Came out of nowhere! First, my throat felt scratchy. Then Thursday, I felt terrible ( but pushed myself to the gym), Eden's nose started running like a tap, then it turned green. Jensen was ok, but bordering on cranky not well. By Saturday I felt like terrible, but Andrew had to go to work and Jensen had now joined us in the sick corner. Andrew went to his friends house in the afternoon / evening and got home around 9 to tell me - he wasn't feeling well either. Well. Really. Did you think you were going to escape it? You left me, at home, sick, with two equally sick cranky kids to go to work (granted - you were fitting new brakes to my car....), then go to your friends place , when you knew all I wanted to do was sleep. Yesterday, I let you sleep all day to try and let you feel better (because apparently I don't work and you do).

I don't understand why a stay at home mum doesn't "work", but her husband does. Obviously, he goes to work and earns money, but I'm at home looking after the house and kids etc. I don't get sick pay, holiday pay, holidays. I'm on 24hour -round-the-clock care of those kids. Don't forget, our 6 month old still wakes at least twice a night to feed. What do you do? You leave this mad house to go to work, and come home and expect stuff to be done. WTF do you think I do all day? Today I did 4 loads of washing, folded some, made muesli bars, did the dishes (twice), put a load in the dishwasher, put away the kids clothes into their drawers (instead of being in baskets on the table like they were), actually organised the baby's drawers as I went, changed nappies, made lunch, cleaned out the fridge, changed the sheets on J's bed, changed E's nappies, played with the kids, made them breakfast and lunch (and fed E hers). ALL of this (and probably more) with a REALLLY whingy baby (I was over it by the time Andrew got home though), 'butted heads' with J over just about anything (he's backchatting again). But Andrew gets home and pulls some packet out pantry, eats it all (there wasn't much left in there anyway) but leaves the empty packet on the bench. WTF? Turn around, take 1 step - two if need be - and put the damn rubbish in the freaking bin.

Tomorrow, I've gotta get up and do it all again. ALSO, I've gotta go to uni for a tutorial with two very sick snotty kids and share the sick-germ love. So add that to my list of "work" I don't do.

Thursday, 8 September 2011

I recently received an opportunity to test out the Rock N Play bouncer/ rocker by Fisher Price - for Product Talk by Nuffnang. I don't know who was more excited to receive the parcel (shh! It was me!). Jensen was in a crabby mood (he wanted to play outside), Eden was in a crabby mood (tired and hungry and just generally in a mood) and I was in a crabby mood (coz my lunch was going cold).

After satisfying Eden's needs and she was down for a nap and Jensen was happily playing cars in his toy area, I got stuck into my parcel!

The Rock N Play instructions are fairly simple on how to put it together. It tells you, step by step, which piece is which and when to put them together. But, I found my self skipping steps coz it was pretty straight forward.

After it was put together, I just had to wait for Eden.

At first, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing in there. She was never a fan of an actual bouncer, so I was not sure how she was going to react. Once she was fed and happy, I popped her in the rocker. Happy enough after Jensen thrust the toy in her face.

check out how happy she is
(and see my omlette going cold in the background)!

The rocker is marketed as portable, so I tested that out. It not only folds (doesn't fold flat flat, just flat in a funny sort of way), but locks into place to space save in the car. We had to visit Andrew's parents, so the rocker came along for the ride. Once Eden was asleep (she breastfeeds to sleep), I placed her in it like it was a portacot. She starts to stir between when she's taken from the breast to be put into a bed etc, but the moment she was in the rocker she was instant calm. So far, each time I've placed her in there like that, the same thing happens. No stirring. Just sleep. This one day, while we were at Andrew's parents place, she slept for nearly 2 hours in it.

snoozin' at nanna's.
Way easier to get Eden in and out
of the Rocker than it is that portacot

Later, once we were home, again ready for a nap, I put her in it, but boys being boys - Jensen makes noise. Eden stirred in the rocker, made a bit of a fuss, but the movement she made made the rocker rock itself. It's not a fast rock - the little feet see to that - just a gentle rock. Lulled her back to sleep.

Rocked herself back to sleep!

It's going to come in handy if I go somewhere I'd need a portacot, or at dinner time when she cat naps.

As it's desgined for up to 11kg babies, and Eden checks in at 7.35kg, there's a while yet to get good use from it. For now, it passes the happy Eden test which makes me a happy mummy in return. Very useful.

I like the portabiliity, the asthetics and how comfortable she looks. Eden has a high chair or an electric swing rocker thing ( I call it a swing-a-ma-jig), bit of which are sit up tall and see the world or a bouncer which is a look up at the ceiling, but Fisher Price Rock N Play, she's propped up and can see me, while relaxing.

I'm going to include a photo taken by Jensen, coz I didn't think to get another small child's eye view of it.

Jensen's view of the Rocker

All in all, this is a great rocker. I wasn't sure it would rock by itself, but it does! That's my favourite feature. That, and that it's portable. It now lives at the far end of the kitchen so Eden can relax and watch while I cook dinner, or while the rest of us eat dinner :) Hands free! I'm going to have a hard time parting with it when Eden is too big!

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Eden is 5 1/2 months now, can sit on her own (but still gets the wobbles and topples over). We started her on some solid food - rice cereal and milk - which must taste terrible according to her facial expressions. We'll give her a nibble of something here and there, but over all - if at all - I don't think we'll stay long with the pureed food. Today I gave her a bit of steamed carrot. She was actually trying to chew it, not just put it in her mouth.

Jensen is 4, and is terribly afraid that I'm going to leave him somewhere. Last night I kissed him goodnight and he was almost asleep. I walked to my room and was brushing my teeth and could hear him screaming "Mummy! Mummy" The scream got more desperate, I ran down there and he was in tears crying "you promised you'd never leave me". Turns out he'd drifted off to sleep and had an instant nightmare.

He has a fantastic memory, is a great help and actually wants to help.

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

So. The real estate called to see if they could change the time on the inspection from 2 til 4. I haven't even got the notice yet. AND they've said the owner is coming to inspect. Also, when we re-sign the contract for 12 months, the $ per week has increased another $10 a week.

BUT we've been given the opportunity to rent Andrew's co-worker's place while she's off living somewhere else. We can paint the walls, mount the tv to the wall, basically, if we want to do something we can do it - something you can't do in a rental. It is also $30 cheaper than where we are now. It's closer to Andrew's work (but further from mine), near some good schools for when Jensen starts.... However - apparently it's a shoebox on a tiny block.

So now the dilemma is - do we stay and have the rent put up again (which is getting increasingly difficult to meet) but stay in this house, or move somewhere cheaper but tiny?

We can inspect the place on Saturday, so we'll have to discuss it then.

On the other hand, we've sorta started to chuck stuff out (mainly because we moved Andrew's computer out of the spare room and made it a toy room and all the hoarding had to go), it sorta feels like we are getting ready to move.

Right-o. So the craft didn't turn out so good for Fathers Day. The red paint was watery, and because J's favourite colour is green - the whole painting was either green or the terrible colour Red, Blue, Yellow and Green make together.

Instead, we cut out numbers from the Coles catalogue and pasted them into a book and the wrote the word next to them, so J can learn to associate the word with the number. I think he got bored with me doing all the fine cutting. He got to use his safety scissors and did some cutting, but the main cutting was done by me.

A special parcel arrived on Thursday (conveniently the only day I wasn't home). I went to the gym, and decided that the three of us (J, Eden and myself) would head out to my mothers, then onto Toowoomba to pick up her layby. Only once we'd got there (and ate lunch next to a grieving family - tears all round - in the food court at lunch hour, of all places), the store tells us the slip we have is only a raincheck, not a layby. 2 hours of driving for nothing! Went to a whole other shopping centre (coz they don't have Target, Kmart and Big W in the one shopping centre) to buy pajamas coz my local Kmart has winter pajamas on special for $3 a pair. This Kmart only has them for $5. Bought one each for the kids (in next years sizes), and headed home.

Thursday also saw the 1st of September, the beginning of spring and a personal challenge which I call "Sugarless September". The plan is to not eat anything blatantly sugary, add sugar to my cup(s) of tea, or snack on sugary or similar things like biscuits (even though most of mine are home made, they still have sugar in them and I am constantly snacking on them).

Friday - was a long day. So tired from Thursdays driving, but I dragged the kids up early to Kmart to print some photos for Fathers Day. Then Andrew calls to say to bring my car up and he'll fix the rearview mirror. And by fix I mean reattach. I've been driving round without a rearview mirror maybe a month. (went to adjust it one day and it came unstuck from the windscreen! I wasn't being rough or anything!) Drive up there, Eden napping, switch the kids and all my shopping bags (remember I said my local Kmart had pj's for $3 - bought about 4 pairs each for the kids, some fathers day presents and some bedside lamps) drive to the post office to pick up the parcel. Eden's awake. This has thrown out her daytime nap rhythm for the WHOLE DAY. Finally we were home! I made lunch (an omelette) but never got to eat it while it was hot coz Eden was grizzly all day, and Jensen wanted me for this or that, and I was trying to put together said parcel. Eden asleep. Parcel assembled. I want a nap. Jensen wants to ride his scooter. House a mess. I trudged through my tiredness and got my cleaning mojo happening - and Eden wakes. blah blah blah, we have a good afternoon, it's windy, Jensen rides his scooter...

Saturday! Been hanging out for Saturday all week coz we're going to a birthday party! My friend H's daughter M has turned 1! We get there late (coz we bought the wrong bulbs for the bedside lamps and also bought a birthday card) and I swear the whole party was catered for by Willy Wonka. Not the brand, but there was so much lollies! Remember what I said Thursday was? The beginning of Sugarless September? Oh, it was hard. It was so hard to resist all the lollies. But I did it. Are you proud? Perhaps not so proud that I put lollies on my plate, then snuck them into Eden's lunch bag. :p The lollies are resting comfortably in the pantry where I can't see them (outta sight, outta mind), patiently waiting for October 1st. There was a 'schedule' , sort of adhered to. There was pass the parcel, pinata, find the different coloured ball (and win a prize), a clown with balloon animals. Wow. It was full on! But a good day. Jensen won the overall pass the parcel prize - a little fishing rod with a magnet and magnetic fish.

Father's Day Sunday - I think Andrew had a good day. Socks, jocks, photos, thongs and a jaffle iron (toasted sandwich maker - the one that seals the edges). A craft thing from Jensen that he made at daycare. Major cleaning at our place in the afternoon. We have an inspection this coming thursday where the owner is coming and we both went into panic mode. I hope nothing bad is going to happen. Apparently they may want to renovate. Andrews parents helped out by doing two dump runs for us (a normal sized trailer both times) but there's nothing to show for it. You can't tell that much stuff has been thrown out. On the up side, the loungeroom is so much more spacious and the kids have a toy room!

Tomorrow starts the new week, and swimming lessons. I hope tomorrow Jensen gets his term 3 certificate and did well in his 'assessment' last week!

By the way, thanks for getting this far. I also appologise for how long it takes me to upload my photos of the day for the 365 day photo challenge. I take the photos each day, it's just reorganising myself to have time to blog them.

Also, keep an eye out here for Product Talk! I've road tested a product (the special parcel!) and I'll be blogging about it soon xx

Friday, 2 September 2011

Now, I've never done craft time. Quite frankly, I suck at it. But we're gonna try and make something for Fathers Day. Kmart opens at 8, so we'll be heading up there to print some photos (before all the crazies get there - I'll be the first!), head to the post office to pick up my parcel, then home to make a sticker chart and some fathers day goodies!